Home › Forums › Open Discussion › RANT-Wash. State Ferry System
- This topic is empty.
-
AuthorPosts
-
August 25, 2011 at 11:50 pm #600313
LisaHParticipantI was taking my Mother and Son on our first ferry trip in over a decade. We were running late due to the traffic mess downtown. The lady at the fare booth was both rude and impatient with me. When going to what I thought was the proper lane for entering, a WSF employee screamed at me to stop and wait my turn. I apologized saying I wasn’t sure where to go & that I wasn’t trying to cut and he yelled at me saying I was lying and knew exactly what I was doing. Even on our return trip we were treated with little respect and much hostility! I was both appalled and embarrassed. I hope this isn’t the normal treatment Wash. State Ferry employees show everyone!
August 26, 2011 at 2:59 am #732989
datamuseParticipantI haven’t had ferry employees be rude, but I gotta agree that it is not at all clear which lane goes where at the Fauntleroy terminal–unless, presumably, you use it all the time and just know. My husband and I almost wound up going to Vashon the other night, instead of Southworth as we intended. Fortunately, we had a nicer person directing traffic than you did.
August 26, 2011 at 3:39 am #732990
ZenguyParticipantThere are rules for posting a rant and they require that you give the people a chance to address your concerns be posting a bad experience.
August 26, 2011 at 4:23 am #732991
angelescrestParticipantLisaH,
You didn’t indicate if it was Fauntleroy, but I will say that without the State Troopers directing traffic, it’s a bit of a goofy mess, that is probably trying the patience and nerves of both employess and travellers. Not an excuse; perhaps an explanation.
August 26, 2011 at 2:59 pm #732992
maplesyrupParticipantMy guess is Lisa was at the downtown terminal.
I’ve never had the cashier be rude but I’ve seen what can happen when people don’t fall into line. And yeah, they’re not forgiving at all.
August 26, 2011 at 8:45 pm #732993
Carla MarieMemberLisa:
I’m sorry you were treated that way Lisa. I’ve seen all spectrums of the ferry worker personality. Some are very kind and some wish they were never born. It was out of line for that person to yell at you and call you a liar.
Zenguy:
If you’re not going to post about the subject, why do you feel the need to be a net nanny? It’s not very zen-like. WSB pays their own people for that. Find a better hobby.
August 26, 2011 at 9:02 pm #732994
kootchmanMemberUh….Zenguy.. how ya gonna seek resolution? If ya make 140K a year to load cars and collect tolls,,,, yor should be smiling all dy long..hey if you are too stressed to be polite and courteous…find new job..The “person” is in the middle of a traffic issue with a state employee who is angry… this is the same ferry system where a loader smeared a breakfast “egg sandwich” (while in state ferry uniform”) on the VASHON run… because someone was taking pictures of his reckless driving.. and then, AT the ferry terminal on WA Ferry Property, tried to get the guy to come out of his car and have a fist fight… last month! KING 5 covered it in great detail.. including the videos.. sometimes you can’t address it … it’s too dangerous. I WOULD call the Wa Ferry System and make a formal complaint though…. KIng 5 would LOVE to cover another incident… I think he got a week off (with pay) as punishment….
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Food-Fight-Road-Rage-123419189.html
Oh yea… we love the system. How about the DOUBLE TIME pay they get..if a seasick passenger throws-up? “Vomit Pay” …. public unions… immune from having to observe the niceties..
August 26, 2011 at 9:14 pm #732995
JiggersMemberFirst of all, I don’t believe that–that employee screamed. That’s a big word. Yelled too? The booth lady was rude on top of it all WoW! That’s like hitting the tri-fecta. Sounds sensationalized or they were all waiting for you. I ride the ferry over to Winslow a few times a month and have never have encountered a screaming employee or witness rude behavior by WSF employees.
August 26, 2011 at 9:32 pm #732996
kootchmanMemberWell Jiggers….perceptions count… and if ya don’t think it is systemic and typical…
http://www.king5.com/home/Not-first-outburst-for-enraged-ferry-worker-123669419.html
This is a multiple offender… protected by the union…. If I pay your salary…. yea.. I do have the reasonable expectation of receiving polite treatment… Jiggers… you are a lucky man… I generally don’t get that treatment either…but it happens.. my PU which I commute frequently with was 6″ over length.. first time in 4 years .. on the way back from Bainbridge..toll booth drone measures the truck with a tape… (extended cab, long bed) I had a full tank of gas and enough cash to get back… told him I was sorry, didn’t know it was too long.. ( I mean after 4 years…it was never an issue) … what did that friendly ferry worker do? Made me pull over, miss the ferry, catch a later one… and I quote “this is a lesson…bring more money next time”… or drive around.
Follow the links… ahh to be 30 years younger… sometimes an a– Whuppin is a good thing… God this would be too funny if this was a third time, same guy…incident. They do seem to like to yell at women and small stature guys though.
August 27, 2011 at 2:08 am #732997
pigeonmomParticipantUh…. kootchman.. where do you get your information?
” If ya make 140K a year to load cars and collect tolls,,,,”
Really now? I collect tolls and make nowhere near that figure nor do my partners on the car deck.
Way to perpetuate FALSE perceptions, dude.
August 27, 2011 at 2:35 am #732998
DBPMemberpigeonmom: I’m late on my yacht payment. Think you could spot me ten grand until the first of the month?
C’mon! I know you’ve got the dough . . .
August 27, 2011 at 5:34 am #732999
kootchmanMemberexample one:
or this
“The miles added up. He earned $60,423 in wages in 2009. His travel reimbursement for the year was more: $72,950. That brought his total compensation to $133,374 in 2009.”
or this one is particularly entertaining…
“Investigators: Warnings of paycheck padding ignored by state ferries
try:
http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=295045
there is no shortage of waste and fraud in the ferry system… just
“google” WA ferry system fraud, waste, abuse.. pick you sources..”vomit pay” is a faorite..imagine a state hospital worker demanding double time pay.. and GETTING it…for cleaning up after a sick patient vomits in the waiting room… yep.. thats our ferry system… corrupt to the core
August 27, 2011 at 5:35 am #733000
kootchmanMemberyou must be the only one not scamming the system….or this one….caught after a customer complaint…and this was ONE day worth of receipts ….. who knows how long she was stealing?
Ferry worker faces toll theft charge
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/news/21591479.html
And the HONEST workers? See how they are treated…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002602005_webferriestrial03.html
BUT… “we” pay anyway….
Last week, a federal jury awarded Ken Marable $2.8 million in a whistleblower lawsuit against Washington State after finding that Marable’s supervisors retaliated against him for complaining about paycheck padding and misuse of department fund
“All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted to the public service.”
That ain’t Ronald Reagan talking… that’s FDR himself…the Democrat “Great One”… And the original post was dead on…and I see no comment on the merits of that set of behaviors eh? ferry workers can be rude and arrogant in the extreme… they would be fired in the private sector in a second for treating customers in such a manner…imagine, the stupidity.. in a state uniform..instigating a fist fight … bty the woman who complained about the first incident..??? A newspaper reporter !! Imagine that.
August 27, 2011 at 2:11 pm #733001
pigeonmomParticipantI didn’t say there wasn’t corruption.
You just told thousands of readers that I am overpaid
and I’m calling you out on that.
August 27, 2011 at 3:00 pm #733002
JanSParticipantkootchman…if you repeat a lie often enough, people believe it. I know pigeonmom, and she speaks the truth. Those examples? a handful, as opposed to the hundreds and hundreds that are honest hardworking people for the ferry system. You have some nerve saying they’re all corrupt. You can’t back that up, and slander is a vicious thing (or is that libel…I always get those confused). You always thing you’re right, no matter what..well, you’re not. I’d take her word over yours any day.
More people need to call you out on your BS..
August 27, 2011 at 5:24 pm #733003
DBPMemberkootchman’s right that there’s systemic waste in the ferry system. The links he posted support that claim.
He’s wrong to imply that all ferry employees are grossly overpaid. In fact, one of his links suggests just the opposite. (“ferry system paying huge salaries to FORTUNATE FEW”)
Anyway, what do overtime payments for WSF engineers have to do with a couple of allegedly rude ferry workers at the Colman Dock? I don’t get the connection there.
kootchman, you little stinker . . . if you want to criticize the ferry system, or government unions, why don’t you just start another topic? I’ll play ball with you.
August 27, 2011 at 5:47 pm #733004
JoBParticipantAugust 27, 2011 at 8:31 pm #733005
kootchmanMemberI also posted the reasons these things DO happen… is the relative security the ferry workers/system have to be as obnoxious as they please. This is covered over by their death grip over the terms of their employment. One article stated “fortunate few”… we need every worker to scam the system to admit a problem? The PVA report, admitted customer service was a “cultural” shortfall.. see items 35, 36… and that was as gentle a state self audit could make it….Did ya read the part where I said generally I don’t receive that treatment either? It’s gottahappen everyday to every customer to be considered a “truism”? Asked to document..at random I did. If your employee, wearing your company provided uniform, went out in the general public and started to smear an Egg McMuffin on a customers car, and when the customer arrived at your place of business…your employee then proceeded to challenge your customer to a fist fight on your property…. would you send him home for a week WITH pay? WSF did. If a customer with three little kids in tow, used a trash receptacle YOU provided for trash, was a aggressively approached, twice confronted, by a lazy employee who doesn’t like to do his job…one of which is emptying trash..and tries to forcibly stuff it in your customers car…. would you ignore it, make no record of it, have no disciplinary actions whatsoever? WSF did. Context folks.. view it in context. Talk about focusing on the cherries and not the tree! Are they all overpaid.. Dunno..but be not surprised if you encounter a surly, rude, agressive, WSF employee..or ones that do steal rip off the taxpayer with scams.. they are not the norm, but they are not unusual either. If yo receive 5 bucks and hour and that is the way you behave and your union runs to your defense… you are being paid 5 bucks too much.
August 27, 2011 at 8:38 pm #733006
kootchmanMemberThis is a “deckhand”… in the parlance of “state speak” “engineer” is a relative term…in the WSF system an unlicensed mate is an “unlicensed engineer”… sorta like your bank teller… Under Vice President of Customer relations…. Sorta like “Operating Engineers”.. a nebulus title with no “engineering” degree… it helps in contract negotiations.
“A deckhand working for Washington State Ferries had a yearly salary of $60,000, but he ended up getting $73,000 in travel expenses last year” ( Not 140K…but close!)
That deckhand loads cars…. 133K a year for an relatively unskilled deck hand? Yea… he/she should smile everyday in every way…
August 27, 2011 at 8:47 pm #733007
JanSParticipantand that was one person out of the whole ferry system. It doesn’t mean that they all do it…give it a rest, big guy. You can’t win this one. You don’t always have all the answers. Yours doesn’t have to be the be all end all. This coming from a salesman – lolololol..talk about dishonest people ! But we don’t tar you all, do we?
August 28, 2011 at 1:22 am #733008
DBPMemberFrankly, I hope guy who smeared the Egg McMuffin on the windshield is gone. That stuff’s prolly harder to get off your car than seagull dookie. Sheesh!
Come to think of it, maybe the guy’s diet was to blame for his attitude problem. D’ya think?
August 28, 2011 at 2:50 am #733009
JoBParticipantKootch..
want me to tell you my you wouldn’t believe that salesman stories? You know.. the ones about how they really see the customer they are glad-handing?
I worked in Sales. I did “hard” time all the way from the sales floor to GM in auto sales… not to mention a season pass through heating and cooling systems and a tour through office machines… a stint in RV’s and a pass through boats. Heck.. i even taught sales for a while :)
oh.. and i know it’s obvious.. but i was a woman on the receiving end of that sexism stuff that permeates some of your posts.
some people should never live in glass houses…
August 28, 2011 at 2:38 pm #733010
KenParticipantThose of you who have lived here all your life forget one of the most noticeable and bizarre “features” of Seattle.
The signage is what we ignore to get around the region.
If you tried to follow the signs downtown directing you to the ferry (either the downtown or to the Fauntleroy docks)You would be either in Renton or Burien before you knew it. If you don’t guess right on I 90 you’re soon driving around Mercer Island trying to find your way to Bellevue or at least back to the interstate. And how do you get from 99 in Georgetown to WS? Not by following the signs that’s for sure. High traffic and construction multiply the crazy. If you have never seen a “lane closed” or “construction ahead” sign that has fallen into the hole that starts immediately behind the sign, then you have not lived in Seattle long. The ferry docks are their own special crazy for the uninitiated. Everyone else knows the unwritten (and unsigned) rules and gets in the correct lane long before there is a sign. And the ferry signage has actually improved in the 20 years I have been driving the region.
My first trip to West Seattle was when I was trying to get to the airport from downtown while 99 was under heavy construction and I could not get out of the “turn only” lane by the time I could see the sign.
August 28, 2011 at 3:42 pm #733011
LisaHParticipantKen
Thanks for getting back on topic. It WAS downtown and that WAS why I was running late. The man DID scream (and yell) at me. On a lighter note, the young man working the counter at the late show at the Admiral last night was a sweetheart. His kindness and upbeat attitude really stood out after the unhappy weekend I’ve had.
August 28, 2011 at 3:48 pm #733012
LisaHParticipantZenguy,
I contacted the W.S.F.S. as soon as I got home.
I explained the whole situation in an email (being the only way I could communicate with them)
So, yes, I am trying to give them the opportunity to respond.
Unfortunately, I still haven’t heard back yet.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.